1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to xerographic devices, and in particular to a device for use in a xerographic unit for inking an electrostatic charge image carried on an information carrier with toner particles by means of aerosol formation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In electrographic and electrophotographic xerographic devices an electrostatic charge image is generated on the surface of an image transfer element, the charge image being subsequently inked with toner particles in a developer station and the latent toner image which arises thereby is subsequently transferred to a carrier such as, for example, paper.
Printing devices are also known in which the electrostatic charge image is directly produced on the final carrier, for example on electrophotographic or dielectrical paper. For the purposes of the following discussion, that element of the xerographic unit which carries the electrostatic change image for the agglomeration of toner particles will be referred to as the information carrier.
A particle beam method by which particles are electrostatically charged by means of an excitation layer consisting of TEFLON (polytetrafluoroethylene) is described in the article "Elektrodynamisches Verhalten der Aufgeladenen Aerosolteilchen in den Inhomogenen Wechsel-und Gleichfeldern," Zurich (1973) by Senichi Masuda. As a result of the charging of the toner particles an aerosol cloud arises and is conveyed to a paper bed which is in the form of an electrode. The cloud is conveyed by an electric field of the traveling wave type. The aerosol cloud is converted into a particle beam in a band pass filter, the particles of the particle beam attracted by a rear plate electrode. The paper is disposed in front of the rear plate electrode. The particle beam is deflected in a desired direction onto the paper by deflection electrodes.
This known particle beam method, however, is not suited for a xerographic unit which utilizes an information carrier, which requires a uniform large-surface inking of the information carrier.